United States Hotel & Israel Green Tavern as it appeared in 1814.  The clap-boards had holes from

                                                                           British muskets fired from the left bank of the Saranac River.  On the right is Plattsburgh Bay and

                                                                           Cumberland Head lighthouse in the distance.

  United States Hotel and Israel Green Tavern was one of Plattsburgh's earliest buildings. It was built in 1795 at the corner of Bridge and Green Streets--the site most recently occupied by O'Neils Packing House.  Owned and operated by the affable Israel Green and his wife, it soon became a popular social centre and even famous as a place for public gatherings.  A summer evening often found Mr. Green on the porch entertaining friends.
   A celebration dinner, organized by Mr. Henry Delord, in honor of Commodore Thomas Macdonough was given at Green's Tavern shortly after his naval victory.  In attendance were Macdonough, General Macomb, General Mooers, Col. Woolsey, and other officers of the Army and Navy.  Fifty-three local citizens attended and underwrote the cost of all 85 dinners, plus cigars and a variety of beverages.  Two gallons of brandy and twenty gallons of wine, plus cider and porter, were consumed during the evening.  Among the seventeen regular toasts that were drunk, Macdonough proposed a toast to Captain George Downie of the British flagship Confiance, who was killed in the battle, and Colonel Woolsey proposed giving extra rum to the sailors in honor of the event.  Music was provided by General Alexander Macomb's band.
   For many years Israel Green Tavern and United States Hotel continued to be a favorite stopping place for prominent citizens in the community--military officers as well as civilians.  In July 1817 President Monroe was a guest of the Greens while the inhabitants of Plattsburgh feted him.  Town meetings were held there for some years, as well as meetings of the Clinton County Medical Society, founded in 1807, Masonic meetings, and teacher's meetings somewhat later beginning in 1822.  The two -and-a-half story wooden frame building was a fixture in downtown Plattsburgh until it burned in 1868.